SECOND SUIT SLATED IN CONTAMINATION OF DELRAY'S WATER STATE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY GIVES OK FOR LEGAL ACTION AGAINST AERO-DRI CORP.

DELRAY BEACH -- The company suspected of contaminating a city well field will face a second lawsuit -- this one from the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, the agency's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Jack Chisholm, attorney for the agency, received the go-ahead from the agency's assistant secretary, John Shearer, on Wednesday to file suit against defense contractor Aero-Dri Corp.

"We'd be asking them to define and address the contamination: where, how much, what kind and to clean it up and provide a source of safe drinking water," Chisholm said.

The suit, expected to be filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court this week, will echo many points in a lawsuit filed last week by Delray Beach against the company, which cleans and manufactures air compressors. The suit will name as defendants Aero-Dri's parent company, Davey Compressor of Cincinnati and landowners Lawrence and John Razete.

Unsafe levels of the grease-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethene caused city wells to close in December and January, soon after environmental officials found even higher levels of the cancer-causing chemical at Aero-Dri, about 760 feet from city wells.

Since then, the city has imposed water-use restrictions and installed purifiers to cope with the diminished water supply.

Aero-Dri and environmental officials for months have been negotiating an agreement known as a "consent order" describing the company's responsibility for the cleanup. But Chisholm said the agency resorted to a lawsuit after the two sides reached an impasse over a paragraph calling for the company to restore drinkable water to the city.

"I'm more disgusted than I am surprised," Aero-Dri attorney Doug Halsey said on Wednesday of environmental agency's forthcoming legal action. Halsey said he had proposed that problems with the paragraph in question be resolved in an administrative hearing.

Giving in on that paragraph, he said, would jeopardize the company's position to defend itself against the city's lawsuit and could make Aero-Dri responsible for cleaning city water of chemicals other than those spilled by the company.

Meanwhile, Aero-Dri this week began to clean contaminated soil on its property, on Southwest 10th Street east of Interstate 95.

In action unrelated to the lawsuits, environmental officials had approved a pilot plan for cleaning the soil at Aero-Dri by a process known as "soil venting."

Mike Sisler, environmental specialist for the agency's local district, said the new technology would be tested on a 1,600-square-foot area before being used elsewhere at Aero-Dri and in the city's well field.

On Wednesday, Aero-Dri's consulting engineers began to drill soil borings that will pump air into the ground, where it would react with the volatile contaminant. The chemical-laden air would be drawn out through another pipe.

Sisler said the emissions would be within state guidelines.

Earlier this week, Sisler said, the company removed soil containing high levels of the contaminant and sealed it in 55-gallon drums.

Halsey said the cleanup efforts proved the company's intention to remove contamination it caused.

But Chisholm said Aero-Dri rejected a proposal that the company negotiate with the city for all reasonable expenses.

City Attorney Herb Thiele estimated it would cost $2 million to clean the well field and to supply safe water.

CHRONOLOGY

Aero-Dri's legal problems began when the company was connected with city well field contamination.

-- JULY 11, 1987: Test detects an industrial degreaser in city water at a level close to state safety limits.

-- SEPT. 30, 1987: Department of Environmental Regulation officials visit Aero-Dri after receiving tip that hazardous wastes had been poured into the ground there and on neighboring property.

-- NOV. 16, 1987: Aero-Dri official confirms that discharges of the hazardous chemical occurred on the property since 1982.

-- DEC. 1987: City wells within 760 feet of Aero-Dri are shut because of chemical contamination.

-- APRIL 21: Delray Beach sues Aero-Dri and other related defendants, saying pollution that contaminated some city wells was deliberate.

-- APRIL 27: Department of Environmental Regulation approves lawsuit against Aero-Dri and related defendants, saying disagreement over the company's responsibility for cleaning the contamination had reached an impasse.